The discussion this past Wednesday was very interesting, and even after 24 hours I still don't think it has all set in for me.
I think Thomas Kuhn has some very intriguing ideas and for the most part I believe in most of his ideas. I believe that the paradigms that have existed in the past must be viewed within the context and era they existed in. As for "paradigm shifts", I believe that they are the result of advancements in technology. So, technology has the effect of both breaking paragdigms and creating them. A great example of this was brought up in class with the "Copernican Revolution".
A question I would like to pose to the class is: "What existing paradigms will experience shifts first?"
Finally, a little fun fact I got from wikipedia concerning Thomas Kuhn.
"Kuhn interviewed and taped Danish physicist Niels Bohr the day before Bohr's death. The recording contains the last words of Niels Bohr caught on tape."
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And, interestingly enough, Bohr's own work on atomic modeling was subject to a slight paradigm shift. As more information became available, Bohr's hypothesis about electron movement around an atom's nucleus (strict orbits) was refined! So it goes.
ReplyDeleteI can't pretend to predict the future. I would imagine that paradigm shifts related to genetics would be a safe bet!
Well, I am sitting in the library right now, and I am waiting for the paradigm of using print cards to shift over to using wisc cards or electronic payment.
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note though, I think that fields that have the most interest and greatest following will be the fields that experience paradigm shifts first.
People were so interested in stars, the earth, and navigation, so there was so much pressure and desire for a new model to be presented.
There are plently of things across all fields that remian unexplained (like why we get the hiccups for example) but the fields that are imperative to keep on improving and developing to advance technology are the fields that will i think be the most likely to develop a paradigm shift.
Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned, shifted paradigms in the field of genetics. With so many curable cancers out there, the desire and drive for modern medicine to improve in the field of genetics is what prompted such extensive experimentation and ultimate success in the field.
Who really cares why we get harmless hiccups anyway... and while we all probably get annoying of printing here, it works, and there are many other more critical things the technology department of this university could probably focus on.